A long, deeply valued and occasionally dangerous friendship between the Mosel's Ernst Loosen and the Barry Family of Clare has delivered a collaboration unlike anything seen before.

Its tendrils cross continents but its roots tap into a single source – a love of Riesling that has driven and defined them.

The collaboration is best described as an attempt to answer these questions:

How does the Mosel mind apply itself to a special site in Clare?

And what do South Australian eyes see when they gaze up at the Mosel’s steep slopes?

The answers lie in two pretty unique wines.

The Jim Barry wine is called ‘Wolta Wolta’, recognising the original name of the grazing farm Jim Barry bought in February 1977, that we now know as Lodge Hill.

Leading up to the 2017 harvest, Erni selected the south-facing Block 18 on Lodge Hill and suggested it be left to hang a couple of weeks longer than the rest of the vineyard.

The wine was fermented wild in a seasoned 7-year-old Fuder Erni selected and shipped from the oak programme he uses for his ‘GG Reserve’ wines.

It spent 12 months in that oak on full lees at 10 degrees Celsius, and another 11 months in stainless steel on fine lees before bottling.

In more than a 150 years, Clare’s never made a Riesling like this.

It’s a wine that exists in a class all of its own – GGDU - Grosses Gewächs Down Under.

The same could be said, just with an even greater timeframe, for the German part of this project, a heroic wine called “Walhalla.’

While the Barrys were applying Germanic thinking in Clare, the team at Dr Loosen took a parcel of fruit from the red, slatey soils of Erdner Treppchen and gave it the Clare Valley treatment.

Fermentation driven by selected yeast and conducted in stainless steel. Less than 4 grams of residual sugar and acidity around 8 grams.

The one variation on the Clare template being a 24-month maturation before bottling, but that also took place in stainless steel.

The wines, 2017 Wolta Wolta and 2016 Walhalla, will be released internationally in February 2020.

The project is an ongoing one and will hopefully thrive like the friendship that inspired it.

For further information contact:

Sam Barry – Jim Barry Wines

Ph: 0408 817 151

Email: sambarry@jimbarry.com

Ernst Loosen –Dr. Loosen

Email: erni.loosen@drloosen.de

Wolta Wolta RRP: $120.00

Walhalla RRP: $55.00

Distributed by CellarHand Wine Wholesalers